Modern American Literature

Vocabulary

100

Uses explicit statements to tell the reader about the character.

Direct Characterization

200

A repeated element in a story that has a symbolic meaning.

Motif

300

Reveals the qualities of a character by showing them through dialogue, description, or action.

Indirect Characterization

400

The central character of a narrative who lacks traditional positive traits (e.g., largeness, goodness, truth) and is instead predominantly flawed (e.g., weak, bumbling, thoughtless, dishonest).

Antihero

500

What do you call it when characters match the traditional roles of Father, Mother, Son, and Daughter?

Familial Archetypes

Authors

100

A famous playwright who created "Our Town" and "The Happy Journey."

Thornton Wilder

200

The author of "The Catbird Seat."

James Thurber

300

This author was known for their clear and concise writing style. They also wrote the story "In Another Country."

Ernest Hemingway

400

This author wrote the story "Charles."

Shirley Jackson

500

This author wrote under a pen name and was famous for using irony.

O. Henry

Historical Background

100

This book best represents the social awareness of the 1930s.

The Grapes of Wrath

200

Name one of the ways that "The Lost Generation" expressed their revolt against the past.

1. Bohemianism

2. Political radicalism

300

What was the name of the day that the stock market crashed and began the Great Depression?

Black Tuesday

400

Name one reason why "The Lost Generation" chose to flee America.

1. They believed the American spirit was destructive to the imagination

2. They disliked materialism.

3. They despised Puritanism

500

Name the 2 philosophies in the 1920s-1930s that were pessimistic about human nature.

1. Freudianism

2. Marxism

Story Details

100

What was Phoenix Jackson's trip to town for in "A Worn Path."

Medicine for her grandson's throat.

200

Name one of Soapy's attempts to get arrested in "The Cop and the Anthem."

Answers Vary 

300

What does it mean to be "Sitting in the catbird seat"?

To be in a place of safety or advantage.

400

What did the photographs and hospital machinery symbolize in "In Another Country."

Hope / False Hope

500

What was the original ransom amount for Johnny in “The Ransom of Red Chief”?

$2,000

Random

100

What is Prohibition?

The legal ban on alcohol in America.

200

What was the name of Johnny's town in "The Ransom of Red Chief"?

Summit

300

Which book of the Bible profoundly influenced Modern American writers?

Ecclesiastes

400

Which writer accepted Christianity as the answer to the spiritual vacuum of the time?

T. S. Elliot

500

Which modern American mindset believed that man no longer needed God?

Secular Humanism